The MSI Z97 Gaming 3 is a well-equipped Z97 motherboard that provides an ideal basis for fast quad-core processors from the Core-i7 or Core-i5 series. The black-and-red board comes with four DIMM slots for DDR3 memory in the fast dual-channel mode. The Realtek ALC1150 is installed as a sound chip, which can produce 7.1 sound via six audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF output.